Day 26 - Part 1 - Into the Storybook
Since, thanks to our delayed flight, we hadn't gotten to sleep until 1am the morning of our first day at
Disneyland, we decided we'd not try to be at the parks for opening, which was late anyway at 10am. Still the excitement of being at Disneyland hit me the next morning and I was awake at 8:30 so we decided we would just head into the parks for opening!
We arrived at the gate at 9:55am and were probably in the park about 15 minutes after opening. We knew it would be a really quiet period at Disneyland so we weren't too worried about crowds. That morning was looking very dark and gloomy indeed (especially for Anaheim - this was our fourth trip there and I've never seen it rain at Disneyland) so that was a little depressing. However, my mood is always lifted walking towards the magic that is Disneyland and it was improved even more when we rounded Town Square into Main Street and saw that the Sleeping Beauty Castle was not under scrims (I had thought it would be!). It was a perfect picture and we walked slowly enjoying the view, along with the beautiful spring flowers in Town Square and the hub. We stopped in at the Photo Shop on Main Street to pick up our photopass plus card and I had a wonderful chat with an older CM who was so happy when I mentioned how happy I was to be at Disneyland, as it was my favorite Disney park! I asked him for a birthday badge for Jared (who I insisted should have one as he barely wore his birthday badge at Walt Disney World!) and the CM asked if I would like a first visit badge (this happens to us a lot at Disneyland, I guess CM's hear our Australian accent and assume that we are visiting for the first time). I informed the CM this was actually my fourth visit to Disneyland and he was impressed and said, 'well that makes you an honorary citizen' and he came back with a birthday badge for Jared and an honorary citizen of Disneyland badge for me! I was so happy!
We pretty much power walked to Indy after that as the rain had started to fall. When we got there the wait was only 10 minutes (30 minutes or so after opening) and we waited maybe 15. I did notice that Disneyland's posted wait times during our visit tended to be on the short side, and the waits were a little longer than advertised. I enjoyed Indy, as I always do and as we were leaving we discovered the ride had broken down and the CM's were out stopping anyone from entering the line. We must have been one of the last people to ride before the shut down so we were well pleased with our choice to head there first.
You may have noticed I have no pictures of anything yet, and that is because it was still raining. We had put our trusty Tokyo Disney poncho's on (we'd been smart enough to realize we needed to pack them that morning - though the color of the sky did make it pretty obvious rain was imminent). We speed over to Tomorrowland and hopped into line for Space Mountain, taking our poncho's off as we went, only to realize we had to put them back on as part of the line was out in the un-covered part of the outdoor queue. We waited about 15 - 20 minutes with a posted wait of 10 and were completely flummoxed to find that no one was being held in the indoor queue that you wind through before you get to the main boarding room! We actually were concerned about how long we would wait with the line outside but it turns out they weren't using the indoor queue (other than the main boarding room) which was strange as they had people standing in the rain outside!
I really enjoyed our trip to Space! I love how smooth the ride is and I love love love the onboard soundtrack. Jared and I always disagree which Space Mountain is better (he thinks Magic Kingdom, I think Disneyland) but he always has to concede that the soundtrack on Space Mountain at Disneyland is awesome! He thinks the Magic Kingdom version feels faster (which I think it does) and that's why he likes it better!
After we exited the Space port the skies had begun to clear and the sun was coming out. And that was the end of the rain during our Disneyland visit (I was pretty happy that after 2 hours it was gone never to return!).
We had a plan to visit all the dark rides in Fantasyland that we hadn't experienced before (because we never prioritized them). So to start we took a trip on Pinnochio's Daring Journey. It was probably the weakest of all the dark rides at Disneyland - seriously, they built that in the 80's, but still fun...The cars were awfully cute though!
Then our next stop that morning was a boat ride we had never experienced (and no it's not it's a small world). It was time to head into Storybook Land and visit our favorite make believe Disney places.
While it was still a little overcast the blue skies were appearing!
Monstro was ready to gobble us up and we were excited for him to do so!
This ride is so beautiful, so quaint and so unbelievably cute, I just loved it! I remember as a kid going to this place in Canberra (our horrid capital city - yes we Australians are not really that proud of our capital and no one else in the world knows what or where it is) that had miniatures of towns, cities and gardens and just loving it so much. This reminded me of that place and took me back to my childhood a little, but with Disney added in!
Arendelle, the newest addition, was beautifully done!
The detail everywhere is stunning!
Ah, shalom and welcome to Agrabah!
This part of the attraction was beautiful! The gorgeous cherry blossoms all around the resort made it even more beautiful!
Into the Cave of Wonders...
Cinderella's Castle looked a little smaller than in Orlando! But the effect was well done!
Arendelle up close!
We also passed Prince Eric's castle
The music they pipe into each section adds wonderfully to the ride. I loved hearing Ariel sing as we floated past Prince Eric's castle, the Arabian Nights music as we floated past Agrabah and into the Cave of Wonders, and Let it Go when we went past Arendelle!
After we were done in Storyland we headed out of Fantasyland. The sky was still looking a little ominous, as was the Matterhorn, which was shut for yet another big refurbishment (seriously, didn't they just do one in 2012).
The Tea cups weren't moving as it had been wet that morning - made for some rare photos with empty cups!
Continued in Next Post...